House building firm sentenced over worker's electric shock

Date:

23 December 2011

Release No:

HSE/NW/68Wain

A worker could have been killed when he cut into a live electricity cable on a building site near Wigan, a court has heard.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecuted his employer, Wain Homes (North West) Ltd, after an investigation revealed he had been told the cable did not have power running through it.

The 42-year-old, from Bickershaw near Leigh, was thrown across the room and knocked unconscious by the 230 volt electric shock. Trafford Magistrates' Court was told the worker, who has asked not to be named, has suffered serious psychological harm as a result of the incident.

The court heard Wain Homes had been refurbishing an old farm house as part of a project to build a cluster of new houses on Smethurst Lane in Pemberton. The worker had been employed as a casual labourer on the site and was working in the cellar at the time of the incident on 12 November 2010.

The HSE investigation found that a construction plan, prepared ahead of the building work starting, had identified live electricity cables as being a potential danger. But Wain Homes did not check existing cables to see if they were live or properly isolated.

Inspectors also discovered that a gas pipe, serving a neighbouring property, had been damaged by a digger more than two months earlier, on 25 August 2010.

Wain Homes (North West) Ltd admitted two breaches of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and one breach of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.

The charges were brought after the company failed to plan and manage the construction work safely, failed to locate and check existing gas and electricity services, and failed to ensure the safety of workers.

Wain Homes, of Kelvin Close in Birchwood, Warrington, was fined £8,000 and ordered to pay £2,095 in prosecution costs on 23 December 2011.

Speaking after the hearing, Thomas Merry, the investigating inspector at HSE, said:

"This was a serious incident which has left one worker with psychological scarring, but it could easily have resulted in several people being badly injured or even killed.

"Building firms carrying out work on sites where there are existing power supplies must make sure they are located and tested before starting work.

"It's astonishing that Wain Homes failed to do this, especially after a gas pipe was damaged on the site more than two months before the incident because the company hadn't carried out the proper checks."

Information on electrical safety is available at www.hse.gov.uk/electricty.

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk
2. Regulation 22(1)(a) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 states: "The principal contractor for a project shall plan, manage and monitor the construction phase in a way which ensures that, so far as is reasonably practicable, it is carried out without risks to health or safety."
3. Regulation 34(1) of the same regulations states: "Where necessary to prevent danger, energy distribution installations shall be suitably located, checked and clearly indicated."
4. Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 states: "It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety."

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